Only love can do that!
by shutout
Summary: The sequel to my story "How do you choose?" Phineas and the gang make a return trip to a more sinister second dimension. As always rate and review!
1. Chapter 1

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

* * *

_I don't miss._

_Or at least, missing is not an option. _

_I carry out the master's orders and I take out his enemies for him. Truth be told, I don't really support him. But he and me have got a professional relationship together. He pays me and gives me my daily bread, and I kill. Sweet little charming assassin Mikela._

_I guess I should get a move on right now. All right then, time to go to the office for some work. Slowly I leave my house, aware that when I return I will have three thousand more in the bank and one more death on my hands. I hide my weapon: a Beretta semi-automatic 9mm. It has enough power for the job. I go to his bar. He is a nice man; I had observed him from a distance before. He's about five and a half feet, so I'll have to adjust to make sure I hit the target._

_I must not have known the proper way to enter a bar with swag. Either that, or I had been struck blind the first two times I came and as a result, miss the reaction of the patrons. Because the moment I walked in, all the patrons stared at me as if I was a deer. And a rather attractive deer at that. It would probably be useful other times, but here it just brings unwanted attention. Nevertheless, I came to the bar and ordered, then sat some way off. _

_I find a nice discreet table by the corner. Someone else walks in. There is a nice buzz in the air: it is, after all, nine o'clock on a Saturday. The bar is full, and I'm hard-pressed to find a gap. The piano and singer is on the other side, and some of the patrons are singing along._

'_**Sing us a song, you're the piano man…**__'_

_The barman reaches under the bar for a fresh glass. I hear a coughing noise, as if someone has had one too many smokes. I drain my glass and walk away. _

'_**Now John at the bar is a friend of mine…**__'_

_Of course he is. Or rather he was._

_Soon, when other patrons come in to order, they will find the dead body of the barman, shot through the wood. They will wonder how the assassin managed to do it with such accuracy and stealth. _

_I tuck my silenced Beretta in my drawer, and checked to see if the three thousand had been credited yet. _

_I wake up the next day. As promised, the three thousand had been credited. As promised, nothing was reported about the incident. I drink my morning coffee and then sat down to do some research on my computer. I'm one of the few people here to own an electronic device: most of the people here don't even have pagers. The computer is nominally meant for me to be in e-mail contact with our leader Doofenshmirtz, but I use it for other purposes as well. It's amazing how many things can be found on the Combine server: the server that unites the Library of Congress and other such libraries around the world. I've never had the chance to go overseas, but thanks to this resource I can go anywhere, as long as it's within my home. _

_I turn the computer off and sit in front of the TV. Again, I am lucky in this respect. Most houses only have preprogrammed channels, but I get the full range. My favourite documentary is Mayday, but I watch other stuff as well. Not what you'd normally expect from a hired assassin, right? Wrong. I'm the exception to the rule. I am a walking contradiction in every sense of the word._

_To be frank, I feel I have a dual personality. Two sides to me. One side is the devil-may-care side, the side that doesn't really care for the imminent end of the world or its converse. This side is apathetic and weak. I tend to use my ruthless streak more when carrying out contracts. In that sense I find having a weak other side helpful, in that I don't feel conflicted over what I've done. Hey, it's a business, right? But please don't get the impression of me being a cold-blooded killer. I only do it because I have to. And in order to do my job properly I must at least have some degree of fondness for it. _

_It was probably my alter ego that asked me to revisit the scene of my last contract, several nights later. For some reason I cannot and never will understand I went back there. _

_The police had been pretty through with their work. I did not see a sign, apart from the hole in the bar that a murder had just taken place here. The regular crowd was still there, but this time, they really did look as if a murder had taken place. Then something amazing happened._

'_**Now John at the bar was a friend of mine…**__'_

_Everyone turned around to see who was playing the piano. But to everyone's astonishment the song continued. __**'He got me my drinks for free…'**_

_Someone else continued._

"_**And he was quick with a joke, or to light up your smoke…**__'_

_By now everyone was singing. _

'_**But there's someplace he'd rather be-**_

_Everyone laughed-not LA but up there!_

"_**He says, Bill I believe this is living life,**_

_**As a smile came back to his face**__,_

"_**Well I'm sure I could be a movie star, now that I'm out of this place**__."_

_The mood was electric. There's something about a crowd of grown men holding hands, both crying and laughing at the same time that takes your breath away._

"_**And the waitress is practicing politics,**_

_**As the businessmen slowly get stoned,**_

_**Yes we're sharing a drink we call loneliness,**_

_**But it's better then drinking alone**__."_

_Except now they were well and truly alone. They really missed John._

"_**Sing us a song, you're the movie star,**_

_**Sing us a song tonight,**_

_**Well we're all in the mood for a parody, **_

_**And you've got us feeling alright."**_

_The mood was clear. They were not going to let John's death stop them. It was what John would have wanted._

_For one second, I too wanted to be part of their group, to sing along with them. Then I turned away._

_Just another statistic._


	2. Chapter 2

His foot crunched across the last of the winter's dead branches that lay in his back yard. It was early spring and the flowers were just beginning to bloom amidst the dead debris of winter. Yet for some reason Phineas Flynn did not share their excitement. He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts.

He didn't see Isabella when he walked past her and only realized when she had gone. He turned. "Isabella-wait!"

She waited.

"About the task Monogram set for us…you think we can do it?"

"He'd never had set us an impossible task."

"True, but it's as close to impossible as one can get."

"Nothing's impossible for you, Phineas. Oh wait, there is one thing that's impossible for you."

"What's that?"

"Forgetting me."

Phineas laughed. Isabella had done it again. "Oh really?", he said, sitting on a patch of grass.

Isabella sat down next to him and played with whatever hair he had. "After what happened back there? Yeah, I'd say I'm sure. Ninety-eight and three quarters percent sure."

They just sat there, watching the clouds drift. Their calm demeanor belied the grim reality of the situation.

"Agents, I am very pleased with your progress. In fact, I think you are possibly ready for some field work." Monogram's face, as always appeared on the screen in front of them.

The three humans and one platypus sat and fidgeted around in chairs designed more for animals and thus uncomfortably small.

"The field work will involve a lot of recon, and you will also need to be able to go incommunicado for long periods. You might need to bivouac a while as well, surviving on the land. If you succeed, you will do a great civic duty to millions of people. If, on the other hand, you fail…well, you know the drill."

"In short, you will need all of your training and probably more to succeed."

Phineas, Ferb and Isabella all stood looking at Monogram. Perry already knew what the mission was.

"We have received information from one of our agents that a known war criminal and generally disliked rogue wanders the streets of Danville freely. He was freed on a technicality at his trial and now returns to haunt all of us."

"So what? We stalk this guy and turn him over to the police?"

"Certainly not. You will cross the inter-dimensional barrier and thwart Doofenshmirtz, also known as a fugitive, war criminal and generally despicable person. And you can hardly turn him over to his own Normbots."

"Say what?" Phineas spoke up.

"You will join the Resistance there. To the best of my knowledge, you will be put into recon work surveying a prison that holds political prisoners and some of the Resistance members. Some of the Resistance members," he added, "that you know very well." he said, looking at Isabella.

"Isabella?"

"Yes. The best possible outcome will be that you free the prison. That is only one of many different outcomes."

"But then who will explain what has happened to our parents?"

"Oh, there'll be no need for explaining. Carl?"

Carl entered the screen. "I've updated the robotic replicas of you and Ferb so that they say more then one default phrase now. This will now be the closest thing to you left in this dimension, should you accept this mission. And it is now fully robotic, with a remote manual operator."

"Alright then. How soon do we have to decide?"

"Give me your answer by tomorrow morning."

"You can have my answer now." Isabella spoke up. "I'm going to get the man who tried to kill me." The video clip of Phineas's dad was still fresh in their minds, the villain in the café unmistakable.

"All the same, think it over. I shouldn't have said, 'you know the drill' earlier, because you DON'T know the drill. The consequences of failing is…well, to put it mildly, horrendous."

"Dismissed." He added, almost as an afterthought.

The next morning, they presented themselves at Perry's lair. They had to do so before anyone realized that there was a hole behind the picture in the living room. Therefore, there were a lot of tired faces, but some strong coffee and a quick trip to the washroom took care of that.

"You lot ready to give me your answers?" Major Monogram looked expectantly at the trio of humans plus platypus.

"Yes." Phineas said. "My answer is yes."

"I follow suit." Ferb said.

"Make it three." Isabella answered confidently.

Perry held up one webbed foot. _Make it four._

"Alright then, it is now six-thirty. You guys have until seven to get everything ready for the trip. Don't worry," he said, looking at their horrified faces, "essential stuff you need have already been packed into those bags over there," he said, motioning to three suitcases and one small backpack in the corner of the room. "All you have to do is pack your own personal belongings and bring them along with you."

"But sir…half an hour? Even airports give advance warning when a flight's been postponed. Don't you think it's a little too short notice?"

"It's not too short. You'll be briefed more fully on the other side. Remember, you parents cannot know of this, otherwise Agent P will have to move away. So no farewell cards, goodbye notes or sending cryptic messages to their iPhones. Dismissed!"

At seven o'clock, the four of them presented themselves to the real Major Monogram, who stood with Carl on either side of some contraption that vaguely resembled a portal. Crop both of them out of the picture and the four agents could have looked like travellers at the airport, each with one small backpack and one considerably larger suitcase.

"Well, at least we don't have to go through Customs to cross dimensions." Ferb observed.

Monogram motioned for Isabella. "Ladies first." Isabella took a tentative step towards the portal, and then as if pushed by some force moved across the dimensions.

"Phineas, you next." Ferb then followed his brother through the portal.

Perry was last. This was deliberate, so Monogram could speak to him in private.

"Take care of them, will you?" Perry nodded. "It's a dangerous mission, and to be frank, I'm scared. I'm really scared. The lives of individuals mean nothing in this kind of dispute."

Perry raised his eyebrows. _Then why did you send them over?_

"They were the best people we could get. I would trust them with my life-and some fancy gadgets the OWCA just got. But you must get a move on; the Danville area is already experiencing brownouts.", he said, looking at an activity monitor where his face used to be on the big screen.

Perry hurried through the portal and Carl closed it behind him.

Phineas and Ferb found themselves looking into mirror images of themselves. It was slightly disconcerting, to say the least. Isabella had no mirror image of herself.

"Hey, Phineas! I'm Phineas and this is my brother Ferb. Say hi to Ferb, Ferb!"

"Yeah…we've probably met." He found himself looking into his own house, with minor editions.

Candace cut in. "Alright guys, this is no laughing matter. You two," motioning for her brothers, "go upstairs."

Once they were gone she addressed the new arrivals.

"Alright guys, you better be prepared for what's about to happen. It's not going to be nice, I tell you. It is not going to be a bed of roses. But if you succeed we'll have taken a major step towards laying down a bed of roses for generations to come."

"You guys," she continued, "will join Johnson on your introductory training for the mission ahead. From now on, he is your handler and you obey whatever he says. If you don't…" Candace eyes smoldered with the head of the unexpressed threat. "Understood?"

They nodded mutely. Candace motioned for Jeremy to take them away. He promptly came and started talking. "I'll tell you everything you need to know…"

They arrived at the basement and Jeremy stopped. "We'll do our intro training here. It's a perfect replica of the environment you'll face in your mission."

"What is it?" Phineas asked.

Jeremy fished a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. When they saw it all three stopped in their tracks.

Ferb whistled. "Some intro."

Jeremy nodded grimly. "You'll infiltrate the real thing on the outskirts of Danville. Just be grateful you'll definitely get in alive in training."

They were looking at a perfect replica of some prison cells.


	3. Chapter 3

**I noticed I forgot to do this again, so here it is. I do not own PnF or any character that's not an OC. As always read and review!**

"So what exactly is the point of all this?" Phineas asked, when they were in their living room.

Candace looked around uncomfortably. She peered into Isabella, Phineas, Ferb and Jeremy. Now what was she supposed to tell her all-star team?

"Okay, the prison is home to some political prisoners. They're in there because of what they said, bunched together with those who didn't say the right things at the right time. Which pretty much covers everyone not in this room." She finished uneasily.

"And Isabella?" he said, nodding towards her.

"I've got something special for her to do." She said. The shadow of a smile flickered across before it was as stony and grim as ever.

"Mind enlightening us boys on what top-secret mission you girls are off on?"

"Phineas, there's a reason why I didn't tell you in the first place. And that reason is mind your own business cos' you've got a lot of business to do." There was a definite edge to the voice.

"So, what exactly is our business being there in the first place?"

"I've already told you, you've got to-"

"No, I meant what's going to be our cover-" Phineas interrupted. Bad idea.

Suddenly Candace was in his face. He didn't even know people could move that fast.

"If you do that one more time I will personally send you to your doom. And it wouldn't be a bad idea to get life insurance now either!"

"Actually, my insurance doesn't cover malicious acts by deranged commanders-"

"Then it had better!" Candace was going to hit him but then decided she had worse in store. "Because the commanders in there are not going to take any sauce from you unless it happens to be tomato!"

"Okay, okay." Phineas said, backing away. Trying to ease the tension. "So what's our cover story? Do we pretend to be bank robbers or something?"

Candace looked incredulous. "Oh boy, you guys are going to need cover all right-but not to deflect questions! You'll be so famous in there they'll ask you everything. Of course, you could also ask for pretty much anything there." She said, almost as an afterthought.

"What do you want us to do when we've made friends with Doof's rejects then?"

"I want you to bust them out."

"No joke?"

"Does it look like I'm joking? Listen, Phineas: you're the most famous people here for those with long memories. You're the stuff of children's bedtime stories-well, all the children that matter anyway-and even adults try to pull your stunts everyday and get arrested for it. Now, with all that on your back, are you going to take it as a joke, and let all these people down?"

"Jeez, I had no idea. Why are we so famous?"

"Why?" She looked at Phineas with a burning intensity. "You take down Doof's personal army and he himself, his minions, you liberate this world, this dimension and save yours-and you ask why?"

"But…" Something didn't click, but it was Ferb who figured out what.

"If we took him down, how come he's back in power?"

Candace sighed. Here at last was the question she'd always tried to avoid answering, nicely laid at her doorstep. She couldn't-_wouldn't-_ answer it.

"That's a story for another time and another place. Now, Jeremy, if you would be so kind as to give them the mission debrief?"

The guys walked out, leaving the girls.

* * *

"Now, Isabella, I've got to tell you something. Your mission will be of a far more covert nature then that of your brothers. It will need stealth, an expert, and-_Suzy Johnson, have you been listening in?_

Suzy appeared, caught red-handed. Candace looked like she was about to shout at her, but instead-

"Well, good. I want you to listen in." Ignoring Isabella's surprised look, she went on, "You're our way into Capitol Hill. Suzy is always welcome in Doof's territory, due to the fact she's friends-good friends- with a number of people in high positions."

"So what do you want me to do?" asked both Suzy and Isabella at the same time.

"Easy. You've got to bring me one of his henchmen so I can ask him a few questions. I need the answers to a few questions. There is a distinct possibility-

"-_a real chance-" _Suzy muttered under her breath.

"-that he might have to be taken by force. In that case, I will make the necessary arrangements. But in the meantime, just get to know him. Be friends with him. If possible, see if you can gain any knowledge from him. Casual introductions, winning smiles, you know the drill, don't you, Suzy Johnson?" she said, with a stare that would not allow the answer no.

"Yes, madam." Candace wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or genuine, but she decided to let it slip this time and only this time.

"Good. Then take Isabella up to your room and brief her. Show her the gadgets, any nuances that might be useful, the whole set. I don't want to see either of you down until dinner."

They left hurriedly, leaving Candace to take her seat on the couch and think of what might have been.

* * *

Jeremy was showing the two brothers gadgets that might be smuggled into prison.

"This is a radio set," he said, holding up a patch of what looked like human skin.

"What?"

"Disassembled, of course. Here, let me show you." He walked over to Ferb and taped the fake skin onto his forehead. It looked completely normal, but when he squeezed a spot above his left ear, the forehead split in two. Unfastening the pouch, he showed them the underside of the fake forehead. It contained all the circuitry required to build a radio taped to the underside.

"Wow, that's nifty!"

"Sure is, Phineas. Heads or tails?" Jeremy was idly flipping a coin.

"What?"

Jeremy threw the coin he was flipping at the opposite wall. The coin split down the middle to reveal a GPS sensor.

"If you need to know where someone is, put this in his pocket. The identical coin," he said, flipping them a quarter, "is a small GPS screen. Put four of them together," he said, flipping them three more quarters, "and you have a dollar, or in this case a GPS screen big enough for you to see. Candace said you might need more then one tracker, so I'll give you some more." He taped the coins to the back of the artificial forehead.

"The last invention is the one I'm proudest of." He said. He showed them towards a set of gelatin fingers with actual fingernails.

"The fingernails are detachable. You put them on when you go in and if you want to use them, press the base of the nail firmly for seven seconds. They have an explosive coating on the underside and when two similar nails-for instance, both thumbnails-are put together, they explode. You get five charges out of it. Not very powerful, nut enough to remove hinges from a door. So use it wisely. Any questions regarding equipment?"

"One last thing. Candace can afford all this stuff and she can't find another, better trained agent to do this work?"

Jeremy sighed.

"She thinks you guys are the only ones capable of persuading her targets."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I apologise if this took a while. I've been having a bad case of not knowing what to write for awhile. Anyway, here it is. Review and make your voice heard!**

Suzy Johnson was staring at Isabella. They had stopped on the landing of the stairs.

"You know this has to work, right?"

Isabella said yes.

"But, of course, you don't know. This is not something we can mess up. It's one of the few real chances we have left to infiltrate Doof before he closes all the gaps in his fortress."

Suzy was about to say more. Isabella could sense it. Perhaps it was the ever-so-subtle shifting of her eyes away from her, her body position, her hastily shut mouth. Either way, there was something she was concealing.

"That can't be it. What else?"

"What do you mean, what else?"

_Definitely concealing something._

"There's something you know that you're not telling me. What is it?" Now that Isabella came to think of it, this Suzy Johnson here before her seemed so much easier to talk to then the one back in her dimension.

"Nothing!" Her blue eyes met Isabella's.

_Oh really?_

Then they wavered.

"Come in," she said, pointing to her room.

* * *

Candace downstairs heard none of this. She only heard the bedroom door close with a snap.

_Jeremy's house._

She was acutely conscious of the fact that she was putting her best friend in mortal danger. But she had no choice. Or rather, no better choice. This was the best place for the new headquarters. When her old one was destroyed, she had looked at all the circumstances and decided this was the best choice.

_I know better now._

All this while she had been thinking about the past, about how all this had happened.

_Back at his trial…Doof's trial…everyone was so sure he'd go to jail. Even though some thought him reformed and no longer a threat to society. Even though some thought that this was merely a revenge proceeding. _

_He went to see the prosecutor and left him shaken…Everyone thought he had copped a plea deal. And pretty much everyone turned out to be right when he pleaded guilty to all charges, but the prosecution appealed for a lighter sentence. The judge was due to deliver the verdict after a two-day sentencing hearing. In the interests of justice, the hearing was broadcast live on TV._

_Simply put, the hearing was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Nobody else who saw it on TV ever saw anything like it, either. Suffice it to be said that the defense lawyer did brilliantly. The judge adjourned after two days to set the penalty._

_National opinion was split. To punish or to rehabilitate? Numerous petitions arguing the merits of both sides while slagging off the other side were sent to the trial judge. In the end, he was ordered to live out the rest of his life under house arrest, with ten years of it to be served in jail. The ten-year penalty was to be deferred for two years. To avoid a public backlash, he was given an unused home and lived under an assumed name._

_I was aghast. Ten years for making all our lives miserable? Who did they think they were kidding, the Joker? Ten years, and then the rest of his life under government protection so that none of us can give him a piece of our minds? I couldn't stand for it. _

_I didn't stand for it. _

_I asked the government many times to reconsider its stance, think if the sentence was enough. Each time, I got the same, stony-faced response: This case is closed and not open to judicial review._

_Eventually, I had enough. I had to do something about it. I got some of my friends together. Andy, Joe, Philip, Candace. The Magnificent Seven-minus three. Out to save the Tri-State Area from evil._

_I should have known the idea was flawed from the first. Revenge is never good. It's your conscious choice if you want to be tarred with the same brush as your opponent and use the same dirty tactics. Heck, we even took guns with us._

* * *

_So why did I do it?_

_Why did I first look for his assumed name, hacking government databases, and then his address? _

_But even after all the planning had been done, even after all the info had been gathered, there was still a chance to back out. With foresight, I would certainly had done so then. But that is the thing with foresight-you never get it until afterwards, and then it comes as hindsight._

_So me and my friends planned to take him from his house in the dead of night without leaving any traces of ourselves being there. We intended to leave fake evidence that Doof had escaped. His no-threat to society defense would be removed, and everyone would hate him again. Or so we hoped. _

_We got in noiselessly- slipping past the security guard and the fence enclosing the property. We dug a hole under the fence, since wire cutters were not available to Doof and someone else would be suspected had we used them. The first part of the plan worked perfectly. So did easing open the door and then acquiring the target. We had to bring him down noiselessly as well, lest the security guard see or hear any four of us._

_In hindsight, we should probably have taken him out. It would have saved us a great deal of trouble._

_When we were trying to sneak under the fence one of us got stuck. I wouldn't say who, but he was truly stuck fast until we decided the only way was to cut the fence. Man, I wish we never did that._

_The moment the wire cutter snipped through the first wire, the whole place literally came alive. Searchlights sent their piercing beams everywhere._

_We worked through the remainder of the fence until the person stuck under it had a hole big enough to wriggle through. But by this time the disappearance had already been discovered and the police called for._

_The getaway, if it was not already taken, was a full kilometer up the road. Even in the pitch dark, we couldn't get lost, since trees flanked both sides of the road. We needed to make a break for it, since the area would probably be sealed off quite quickly. So we ran._

"_There it is!" We ran and embraced our black car. Now all that was left to do was-_

"_Stop!" We saw the faces of our pursuers: three policemen. I didn't recognize any of them, but one of my colleagues did._

"_Why you son-of-a-"_

"_Calm it." One of the policemen said. "You're all under arrest here, and I'd hate to have to kill any one of you."_

"_Stop it, Paul. You know we're innocent." Philip's eyes blazed with rage, as if he and Paul had unsettled business. As I later found out, they had._

_I saw it coming a second before it happened. I shoved Joe down. _

"_Take cover!" The sound of gunshots filled the air, and I no longer knew which way was up or down-only escape and death held any meaning. _

_More gunshots now. We had squeezed underneath the car and now found ourselves on the other side of it. The safe side._

_The aftermath was on the other side, with two people dead and two others hit. They were calling in reinforcements. Andy was just standing on the other side, gun raised over Philip's dead body._

"_Do you think we should make a break for it?"_

"_Don't even consider it!" a harsh voice suggested._

_The police were there. Their help had arrived._

_Desperately the two of us looked at each other._

"_Drop the weapon!"_

_Andy turned and looked at us, as if to ask advice from us. We nodded._

_Andy spun around, raised his hands…_

_No choice. We couldn't come this far to be stopped. _

_And the moment Andy and the gun crashed to the ground we opened fire._

_I didn't know what to expect from a firefight, having never been in one. I certainly expected noise and things breaking, but not the adrenaline rush that comes with it, the knowledge that every move made has life-or-death outcomes._

_Something else I didn't expect was Doof aiming Philip's gun at me-Doof has a gun?_

_It all happened so fast._

_Everything went quiet as Doof took me hostage. He forced me to stand up._

_I think it was instinct. How would I have known exactly where to hit, where to make his gun fly? Suddenly we had the upper hand._

_Joe behind me raised his gun at Doof._

_But, inextricably, the police leveled theirs at us…_

"_Don't shoot!"_

"_I don't care anymore." Joe looked the part, too._

_His finger tightened on the trigger…_

* * *

_A gunshot rang out. Joe's hand was bleeding and he had dropped the gun._

_Doof bolted._

_A hail of gunshots followed him, but they could not penetrate the woods._

_Neither could they penetrate me, as I bolted after him._

_I could not find him. And the worst part was that I had let him go. I had set free a monster I myself knew best. I had set him free to build his empire again, as he would indeed do in a few weeks. And he-it had cost me two friends, who, as I sit, are stuck in jail for murder._

_The worst part is they think that's right, that they really did kill someone._

"The last bit is that Doof made his way to his secret underground fortress, where within weeks he had built another army of robots that took over." Isabella was concluding her narration.

"So Candace thinks she's guilty of starting this over again? But why? She couldn't have predicted this! No one could."

"I know. I'm not sure if _she_ knows." Suzy replied.

Isabella started to get up, but Suzy said, "Wait! You cannot tell Candace I told you that! Just sit down, and I'll tell you what Candace wanted me to tell you about the mission." She took a deep, steadying breath as she continued. "Our job is to get information from one of my friends who also happens to be a prominent person in the Tri-State Area."

"Wait, but doesn't Doof prefer to rule all by himself, dictator and all?"

"He does. But it's really hard to do it all. So he leaves the day-to-day tasks of management to a small group of select individuals. He's playing a really clever game, Doof. He's got them all scared of him, so all he has to do is come out and make periodic speeches and everyone there will be under his control. By extension, he controls every one of us as well. Well," she added, "_almost_ everyone."

"So we're basically spies and we are trying to get some info from one of your high-up friends?"

"Yeah…basically." Her eyes looked away.

Isabella decided not to press the point.


	5. Chapter 5

"Suzy, you nearly done yet?" Candace was waiting impatiently.

"I'm not nearly done, I _am_ done. Now let's go." Isabella and Suzy walked down the staircase wearing clothes that they would never be caught dead in.

Candace had to stifle a burst of laughter. It really was ridiculous. Isabella and Suzy contained in proper 'ladylike' clothing-though of course Suzy was no lady.

"Try not to trip over your dress." Candace held the door open for them. They walked outside, and into a waiting car. Candace closed the door and followed the inside.

As soon as they were inside the car, Candace raised a divider that divided them from the chauffeur in the front.

"Okay, now we can talk. Of course, Suzy, if you've done your job correctly, there should be no need to talk. You two would already know every aspect of the plan so well you'd answer me backwards if I quizzed you in your sleep."

"Well, we didn't exactly practice backwards, but sure."

"So then, Isabella?" She looked at Isabella; Isabella gave a sudden start at the sound of her name. "What are we doing first?"

"Uh, first we'll get into the party without being noticed."

"Very funny. What do you think the dress robes are for then? What are we _really _doing first?"

"Then we meet up with your-our friend and ask him if we could sit down at his table. Which he will say yes to, as three gorgeous ladies is two too many to resist."

"And then?"

"Alcohol. Lots of it. Just enough to make him loosen his tongue."

"Ahh…the failings of man. Just the way I like it!" Candace seemed to like the idea, which was a good sign. Usually if she didn't like it she'd say so at this point.

Suzy certainly did not appear to like the plan, but Candace ignored her.

"And if that doesn't work?"

"We arrange for Jeremy to show up on the scene and pretend to be Candace's estranged ex. While the police are busy restraining Candace and Jeremy, Isabella and Suzy will take him away from the chaos, drug him and throw him into the car. We will make sure people see his unconscious body in need of urgent treatment. The story we will put out to the guards at the party is that he needs to go to hospital fast; in reality he will go nowhere near a hospital."

"You know, I still don't see why we can't just go with the second plan. Jeremy and I could fight our way out if it comes to it, we don't mind-"

Isabella opened her mouth, but Suzy spoke instead.

"Because I don't ant to hurt him unless necessary! I mean-" catching herself and Candace's face, "-if we take him by force, he can't give us anymore info on Doof. If we get it out of him while he's intoxicated he could give us more!"

Candace stared. "Close your mouth, honey-"

"Don't ask me to close my mouth, Candace Flynn-"

"Not you, I meant Isabella!" She pointed to Isabella's open mouth; Isabella shut it.

* * *

Jeremy stood with Phineas and Ferb. They were on a street that looked at the prison. The prison seemed to look back at them, at all the houses that surrounded it, and it seemed to breathe despair.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Jeremy whispered.

"Yeah…Jeremy, you can't seriously tell me-"

"-that you're going to get out? Yeah, I'm telling you that. But I'm also telling you something else, you're Phineas and Ferb. And no one is ever going to forget that." He winked at Phineas.

Phineas wanted to ask what he meant, but at that moment Jeremy's watch beeped. "Gotta run, I'll catch you later. Good luck!"

"Wait, but-"

Jeremy was already leaving the scene. Already there were a few people peeking out of their house windows, wondering who would be stupid enough to be standing on the street.

* * *

The first sign they got that something was _not _right was the rumbling.

Then the ground began to crack. And shake.

Some more people peeked out of their windows, curious to see what was going on. They didn't come onto the deserted street. No one dared.

Boom!

Something exploded deep underground, and the shockwave threw Phineas and Ferb off balance. They fell to the ground.

The shaking intensified. Phineas tried to stand up, but couldn't. His legs felt like jelly. The houses around them were shaking so badly they were merely blurs in Phineas' vision.

The few who remained at their windows left them. Inside their houses, shelves tumbled. Phineas could hear the breaking of glass.

Then the ground exploded.

Phineas was no longer aware of where Ferb was. He was blown away from the explosion. Ground and sky mixed in a confusing tangle of colours-

-Then he came to rest against Ferb's body. Confused, he said-

"Ferb, what-"

But he didn't need to ask him what happened, for at that instant he saw it.

The sidewalk on which they once stood had been completely obliterated. The blast had happened directly before them, on the other side of the road; the damage lay behind them. Phineas got up woozily and put a hand to his aching head; it was wet with blood.

Turning around, he looked at the house behind him, or what used to be the house behind him.

The wall was totally blown in, and the roof had collapsed. The garden in front of the house had been on lower land then the road, and they had escaped Jeremy's work because of it.

Other houses had not. From his position, Phineas glimpsed at least two more destroyed houses before he and his brother were lifted into the air, struggling.

* * *

Isabella and Suzy sat themselves down. Introductions were offered; only Suzy had no need of one.

"Guys, this is Adam, my friend."

They smiled politely at Adam. Isabella managed a sheepish "Hi."

"It's nice to see your friends, Suzy. I was so glad you could make it."

"Make it? I wouldn't have missed it for the world. No one misses a friend's wedding."

"Yeah, big sis's getting married, ain't she? I remember when I first met her. She was fifteen then…"

"Yes, I was, and I'd like it if you stop calling me big sis, alright?" Kate had materialized behind Adam. Adam laughed; Kate smiled.

"It's okay, after all, you can call me 'big bro'?"

"We've been friends for so long I can't help it."

"Any longer and your husband might start to get jealous-"

"-of what? Your not-so-handsome face?"

They all laughed, and Adam said, "Go on then, see you later!" Kate disappeared, but not before setting a bottle of wine and three glasses on the table.

Adam uncorked it. "I presume you drink?" he said to Isabella.

"Yeah, but not too much."

"Well, more for me then." He poured each of them a generous quantity anyway.

"To Kate!" Adam proposed.

"To Kate!" the two girls chorused.

The mission had begun.

* * *

Phineas and Ferb were put on the ground rather unceremoniously. But what else would have been expected of Normbots?

"Sir, we found these two near the crime scene."

The inspector looked down at the two boys, one of which was bleeding rather heavily. He would fix that straight away. "Normbots, I need you to take these two to the main prison, where they will be held while awaiting trial!"

"Do I have the right to a lawyer?" Ferb asked grimly.

"Nope. You have the right to shut up, though, which is what I would do."

The Normbots yanked them by the collar again, making sure to hurt them.

While Phineas was in the prison hospital, Ferb was rushed through the procedures and fairly soon had his mug shot. Inmate number 63241. He wondered if he should pose for the cameras, but something told him the guards didn't like it.

"Alright then, Mr Fletcher. You will get this cell at the end of the corridor. Next!"

Ferb moved on, escorted by the guards, to his now home in his new clothes.

* * *

Three hours and many drinks later, Kate and her husband were lawfully wedded, Candace had come to their table and they had not been able to gain anything from Adam.

Isabella had decided the time had come to turn the conversation to serious matters. Recalling something Suzy had told her in her time with Suzy, she said, "So, Adam, about your latest work-"

"-it's top secret. Yeah."

"To us too? Come on, who are we going to tell, you?"

"Well, I suppose it can't hurt…" he said taking another sip of the wine. He swayed unsteadily, and then said, "I suppose it can't hurt, to give you the general outline of the thing…"

"You see," he said again, draining his glass, "the general thing is a sound weapon. It's a beam of focused sound that can destroy the target, if used correctly."

"And that-" Isabella said, suddenly feeling afraid.

"-is all I'm going to tell you." Adam looked at Isabella with unfocused eyes; Isabella relaxed.

"Yeah, okay. Hey Adam, you don't look too happy, maybe we should move on." Suzy was looking at Isabella. Her eyes told the story. _What are you doing?_

_Hang on. I have a plan._

"Move on?" Adam was clearly drunk by this point. Isabella half-expected him to collapse on the table. "If you say so…"

He reached for his glass, which had been refilled by Isabella.

"Let's forget about this incident then. Cheers!"

Adam's hand wavered when toasting, but was steady when he took another gulp.

Isabella looked around at Candace and Suzy.

_Get ready for another drinking bout._

* * *

Once Phineas had joined him in their new home, they truly began to make it theirs. Phineas had the bottom bunk, Ferb had the top one, which held the alarm.

"If anyone tries to enter the cell at night, you can bet your life it's going to go off." Ferb reassured Phineas.

"Well it damn well better work, since it is our lives that is at stake. You've found out who we're supposed to be getting yet?"

"Yeah, it's two people. Actually," Ferb said, lowering his voice, "you might want to brace yourself."

"Why?"

"We're famous here. Everyone here seems to know us, and for better or worse, all of them want to talk with us."

"Know us for…what happened five years ago?"

"Yeah…and they're mostly on our side in here. In some sense, this place is safer for us then outside."

"Ferb, this is terrific, but who are we supposed to look for again?"

"Well, the-" Ferb broke off. "Get in bed. Now."

Phineas got into bed and heard the top bunk squeak as Ferb got into bed.

Ferb's suspicions were confirmed when the shadow of a guard appeared outside their cell door.

They waited for it to go away, but it didn't. It was here to stay for the night.

So, it seemed, were Phineas and Ferb. After a while they just drifted away.

* * *

Adam looked really drunk, but pretended he wasn't as he downed another glass.

"To Cody!" Isabella said, remembering one of the names Suzy had told her.

Adam looked vaguely surprised. "Cody? Now who-oh yeah, Cody! Yes, to Cody! Bless him and his work!"

It was working. Adam had evidently forgotten they were not supposed to know Cody.

"Yeah, I know right? Say, I haven't heard much about his latest work-Fourier analysis, was it?"

"What? Yes, yes. He knew all about that-really important work it was, too."

"Oh, he does need help with that. There's no way he's getting through that alone."

"Alone? He ain't doin' it alone…blidding Harry's helping him, innit? Harry Parr. Innit? Darlin', I dunno what the guy's thinking, hiring an assistant…"

"But what's Harry working on?" Isabella struggled to keep her voice level.

Adam was about to pass out. "Don't disturb me now, darlin', I'll just be awhile-" He reached for the glass. "If it means anything to you, darlin', he's working on the design of the thing. Now, you just run along and tell Barty Brown that, will you? I'd expect he wants to know…"

And at that point Adam collapsed in a heap on the table, his half-filled glass tinkling to the ground. Isabella looked at her watch: it was two in the morning, and definitely time to get going.

Three names. Bartholemew Brown. Harry Parr. And Cody Britt, who they already knew about, but had just gleaned more information on.

Not bad for one night out.

"How true do you think the information is?" Candace asked Isabella as they all piled into the back of the car.

"Oh, quite true. After all, a drunk man never lies." Isabella said smugly.

The car sped away, its engine the only sound in a soundless night.

**A/N: I'm sorry for not updating earlier, but I had a very bad case of writer's block-and the common cold. So yeah, here it is, and this is my first work since I'm back from my 'illness'. Reviews are always nice so if they keep coming, I'll be nice to the main characters! :D And yeah I would have said more but it's 1:30 AM as I type this and I'll hit the hay quite soon.**

**What, no cookie?**


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